Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
On a recent weekday afternoon in June, Ink on A is its usual bustling self.
People are coming into the newsstand to buy newspapers, cigarettes, a cup of coffee, or a can of soda — or maybe one of the more oddball market items for sale (a tin of Port Royal sardines, anyone?) here in the pleasantly cluttered space on Avenue A between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. There is also the usual assortment of characters inside or out, offering pointed opinions on various topics of the day.
As always, owner Ben "Benny" Dahud presides over the quintessential East Village shop from his perch at the counter...
In recent months, the future of this 33-year-old business has come into question.
A private equity firm bought this block-long residential building and strip of retail last September for a reported $64 million.
On the way out last fall, the building's previous landlord, who had run the place since the 1980s, informed Benny that he owed three years of real estate taxes, about $20,000.
The new landlord, reportedly Derby Copeland Capital, through the entity Derby Alphabet Blues 5872, LLC, later took Benny to court.
"And they didn't cash three of my rent checks," Benny said. "They disputed the checks — one was undated, one was incorrect, and whatever. They won in court. They won the judgment in a lump sum — three months' rent plus the real estate taxes. So more than $50,000 I owed right away. I didn't have a lawyer, so I signed the stipulation, a legal agreement. I paid 80% but hadn't paid the last 20%, and they took me back to court."
The court again ruled in their favor, and Benny received a Marshal's notice earlier in the month.
In addition, Benny said the agreement included a statement claiming that he watched someone urinating in the doorway to the building's Avenue A entrance and smiled — as if he approved of the action.
"I didn’t do that," Benny said. "I come every day and clean the front."
Ink has another 18 months left on the lease, and Benny wants to stay.
'I have no plans to move. I have been here 30 years," he said. "I don't want to go anywhere else."
He could use legal counsel and the negotiating skills of a nonprofit or advocacy group for small businesses ... or the diplomacy of a local elected official interested in keeping a longtime business in the neighborhood.
"I am hoping to get some help," he said.
Meanwhile, Benny pointed out that the shop's extensive assortment of magazines — from high-end fashion pubs to supermarket-friendly tabloids — remain his best sellers. (Designers are said to particularly appreciate his harder-to-find titles.)
Stop by and say hi to Benny — he will appreciate the support...
These big corporations are destroying the neighborhood
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't he get a lawyer?
ReplyDeleteTo add to his bills?
DeleteLoading up tenants with debt makes sense in a sort of protection racket way. But private equity firms aim to destroy businesses as quickly as possible that have been and would continue to be reliable tenants. Which makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteThis is sick. That whole strip getting fucked by some yuppie douchebag shit. With their ivy walls.
ReplyDeleteComplaining about plants instead of graffiti? Are you serious 9:36?
DeleteAre there no metaphors or figures of speech in your world, 1:05? How limiting for you.
Deletebeen coming here the whole 30! the shop is a gem and so is its owner. when i was young and didn't have any money to buy magazines, he never yelled at me for browsing too long. i will be stepping up my purchases! in the meantime, i suggest contacting jumaane williams's office; they should be able to help, or to point him in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteSad to hear this drama going down. Benny is a really cool dude and always friendly when I ventured in there. Hang in there brother, you will make it through
ReplyDeleteThe company that purchased the building have emptied the tenants out of about 50 apartments, leaving 23 rent-stabilized, who are subjected to months of surround sound demolition, and construction, as they haphazardly gut and convert 1br to 2, and 2 to 3. Why they are Frankensteining a building from 1939 is beyond us. Who is going to pay a minimum of $6000 a month for an apartment in an old doormanless building? Signed, a tenant in it.
ReplyDeleteWas also kicked out of this building a few months ago. Recently found out they are turning our old 1br into a 4br!
DeleteBenny is for the community, WE NEED HIM & HIS BUSINESS!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is why the Small Business Jobs Survival Act needs to be introduced and passed in City Council. The practice of passing the property tax in addition to rent onto small business owners needs to stop.
ReplyDeleteThis is why Carlina Rivera's proposed bill, the Commercial Rent Stabilization Act (Intro 93) continues the status quo for landlords to squeeze out as much $$$ from small business owners.
She could have introduced and passed the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, but she CHOSE to serve big estate & lobbyists, who fund her campaigns.
Once again, she betrayed our community! When is enough enough?
VOTE for Small Business!
Vote Allie Ryan tomorrow, Tues. June 27th!
Ok. The city gets one third of its budget from property taxes. Commercial real estate values are plummeting. A financial reset is coming for the city and state. Are people ready for that? Who funds the programs and services? When will the city acknowledge that the covid spending boom is over?
DeleteWhy is it up to the tenant to pay real estate tax? That should be a burden of the landlord.
ReplyDelete2:48 PM: You'd think so, but it's actually a fairly common commercial lease provision to pass through the RE taxes to the tenant. These are called (double, triple) net leases.
ReplyDeleteDon't have anything constructive but appreciate the vent these equity firms have killed the LES and ruined quality of life for those of us who either made it our home or were born into the hood our block has been basically gutted by bars and equity ownership of buildings its just numbers to them they don't see these buildings as peoples homes or lively hood shame on you Carolina, longtime supporter but you lost my vote with the park and now this come on just put that (R) in front of your name and be gone all of CB3 needs a revamp to people who care about our community not Hospitality and Real Estate
ReplyDeleteOpen your eyes. The landlords are destroying the neighborhoods and reveling in their greed. They have been boo hoo-ing since Covid when ppl couldn’t pay like a month or two because things were shut down- and thousands of ppl were literally dying.
ReplyDeleteThere absolutely needs to be new laws passed reining them in-can someone share petitions, etc regarding the small biz act etc,? Is there any way to help ink on A? I personally got pushed out of the neighborhood because I didn’t want to live in a 3-4K tenement studio -it’s ridiculous-but I would love to help.
The Mayor and City Council have done everything to help restaurants - free space restaurant street shacks and other help like ignoring violations, pausing health inspections etc.
ReplyDeleteBut they (and their predecessors) have completely ignored small shops and businesses suffering from high rent, e-commerce, shoplifting etc.
Even now, the City is giving unfair advantage to e-commerce as the City is planning e-commerce delivery hubs.
Real estate trolls are loving it here. I see what they are doing and its pretty funny!!!!!! Who the fuck, or, as PJ Harvey sings, "Who the Fuck?"
ReplyDeleteGolf shop makes sense now. But hey, its not a one story empty building. More tax based. What the fuck!!!!!! More golf Now. LOL!!!!!!!! Less empty buildings!!!
Again. Carlina is a real estate troll......along with the "tear down one story buildings crowd or the "gee whiz" crowd "its not empty" trolls. Sorry, but Ink on A needs our support!
ReplyDeleteBen is a true jewel for the East Village community. He's always positive and good to everybody. We absolutely need to keep him and his business.
ReplyDeleteBenny is so cool, I’ve been going there steadily since it opened. I concur with 9:44 as in my younger and meager days I would browse all the European fashion mags that I couldn’t afford and Benny never shooed me out and I’d always buy one eventually, when I was older and more flush I’d buy them along with always the Sunday Times a coffee and a conversation about the weeks topics. I hope Benny sorts it out as the EV needs him and his shop!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWhere are Carolina Rivera and Harvey Epstein? They should be fighting for this beloved store!
Carlina purported to be “progressive” but only cares about restaurants - she has done nothing to help small shops and businesses.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a tsunami of small shop closure during her tenure.
The backstory to all of these types of issues is NYU, which has increased their enrollment by 50% over the last 20 years without building a corresponding amount of housing on their campus. The East Village has been turned into NYUs dorm since it’s the cheapest neighborhood within walking distance to campus. When we are renting apartments we are competing with the parents of NYU kids. I recently even met an NYU parent who was trying to BUY a coop for her daughter in the EV to live at while she attended NYU. Real estate investors know this and are gobbling up buildings, modifying the units, and raising the rents accordingly. Some units aren’t even listed on regular rental listing websites but only on special ones for college students. And the retail changes too as we become the student and party neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the new building owner is trying to go for NYU kids by turning the units into 3-4 bedrooms since it obviously isn’t families. I live a block away and the new owner of my building (illegally without permits and without change to the C of O) recently turned a one bedroom into a three bedroom (two new interior bedrooms without windows) and rented it out to NYU kids who throw ragers in the middle of the night during the week. Meanwhile my rent has gone up 50% over the last 2 years while the maintenance of the building has markedly declined. The old owner of my building was a local senior who I knew personally and had reasonable and modest rent increases every year because they cared about the area since they lived here too, and wanted to make sure they had the right tenants in the building that contributed to the neighborhood. But those days are gone, at least for me.
I know it’s a matter of time until I’m gentrified out of the neighborhood, like so many others have been and will be. The question for all of us who rent and aren’t rent stabilized isn’t if but when we will be forced out of the neighborhood, and where we will go next.
This is so unfair, why does he have to pay back taxes that the previous landlord defaulted on, he does not own the building.
ReplyDeleteIs there a go fund me for this?
ReplyDeleteBenny said he doesn't want a GoFundMe... he's looking for help from a nonprofit that protects and supports independent small businesses in the East Village and Lower East Side. He could use some legal counsel. As far as I know, no one has come forward.
ReplyDeleteI buy from every magazine shop left in this city so this is personal for me. That said, I think Benny could use some help. At one time the magazine selection was as good as anywhere in the city- Casa and Iconic included- but has fallen off badly in recent years. Until about 6 months ago there was a gigantic selection of badly organized back issues. Kind of cool that you could get an issue you had missed but there appeared to be very little turnover of merchandise. Fast forward to now and there is only a small selection of magazines in the front of the store. Fair enough, maybe he has selected only titles that he knows he can shift. But it is kind slim, and the selection is pretty standard.
ReplyDeleteBigger issues- the place wreaks of cat litter. Overpowering.
I went into the "back room" where he is keeping some back issues and there were flies everywhere. The flies coupled with odor of cat litter was too much.
I understand that his business is more than mags, but I believe the emphasis has certainly been on mags, and his window was always an exciting one, to see what he had in.
An ironic thing about the times we are living in- there is an explosion of indie magazines right now but fewer places to buy them. Shops like Casa and Iconic (and Soho News) are lauded and have big followings.
The East Village not long ago had multiple places for print fiends to get their hands on what they need. Now Ink is the last one standing.
Let's hope he can get out from under his scumbag landlord and keep it alive!
But I do think he needs some help maintaining and possibly refreshing the store.
I agree 100% , there are a lot of well known artists that live in the area and frequent his store, also places like mast books- could
DeleteGet creative and so a one off zine that is only sold here to boost sales and popularity - Where’s NY Nico when ya need him!
Benny should reach out to Cooper Square and the East Village Independent Merchant Association.
ReplyDeletei would volunteer to refresh/organize, if that kind of help was wanted.
ReplyDelete